User blog:GGDungeons/Trivia Section Help
Trivia? If you don't understand the biological terms used in the "Trivia" sections of most articles in the wiki, I'll explain them here. Biological Nomenclature Common names for organisms, such as monkey, finch, and lilac - convey meaning in casual usage, but they can also cause confusion. Each of these names, for example, refers to more than one species. Moreover, some common names do not accurately reflect the type of organism they signify. Consider these three “fishes”, jellyfish (a cnidarian), crayfish (a crustacean), and silverfish (an insect). And of course, a given organism has different names in different language. To avoid ambiguity when communicating about their research, biologists refer to organisms by Latin scientific name, The two-part format of the scientific name, commonly called a binomial nomenclature, was instituted In the 18th century by Carolus Linnaeus. The first part of a Binomial is the name of genus (plural, genera) to which the species belongs. The second part, called the species epithet, is unique for each species within the genus. An example of a binomial is Panthera pardus, the scientific name for large cat commonly called leopard. Notice that the first letter of the genus is captalised and the entire binomial is italicized (since you cannot write in italic, you will underline both names, Panthera pardus) Many of the more than 11,000 binomials assigned by Linnaeus are still used today including the optimistic name he gave our own species - Homo sapiens, meaning "wise man." Hiearchical Classification In addition to naming species, Linnaeues also grouped them into a hierarchy of increasingly inclusive categories. The taxonomic system (or Linnaeues system), includes eight taxa: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. An easy way to remember this system is to remeber this phrase, "King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup". Now, don't think dirty, okay? The first thing to do is to find the domain in which the organism belongs to. Take the example of leopards. Leopards belongs to the Domain known as Eukarya. A eukaryote is any organism whose cells contain a nucleus and other organelles enclosed within membranes, in simple terms, it means that the organism is multicellular and can function on their own. The other two domains are known as Bacteria and Archaea. After the domain we come to the Kingdom. There are six kingdoms: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaeabacteria, and Eubacteria. Archaeabacteria and Eubacteria can be grouped together as a kingdom known as Monera. Leopards are animals, so they naturally fall under the kindom of Animalia. Following the kingdom, we arrive at the Phylum. There are approximately 35 phyla in the kingdom Animalia, 12 in Plantae, and and 7 in Fungi. We group Leopards under the phylum Chordata. Chordates are animals possessing a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail (basically a tail) for at least some period of their life cycles. It only gets more confusing after the phylum. Next up is the Class. The classes are rarely discussed. All you need to know is that Leopards belong to the class Mammalia, cause mammals, get it? Next we have the Order. Order typically describes the characteristics of an organism, the way it moves, eats or survives. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist (a person who studies taxonomy) needs to follow in describing or recognising an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognised only rarely. But can you guess what order Leopards fall under? Carnivora, simply because they are carnivores. After that we come to the Family. It's basically describing the overall look of a herd of organisms. So Leopards fall under the category of Felidae. The second last taxa is the Genus. The genus name forms the first part of the binomial spec ies name for each species within the genus. You have to be really specific in order to find the correct genus, as there are over millions of them. Leopards fall under the genus known as Panthera. The final taxa is the Species. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals are capable of reproducing fertile offspring. To name a species, you just need to attach the generic name (the genus) with the epithet (the second part of the biological nomenclature). Epithets are considered one of the most confusing taxanomic names to name, so don't worry. The species name for Leopards is Pathera Pardus, and it basically means "Male Panther". Hope you get a better understanding of classification. Before I forget, here's the naming system for humans: Category:Blog posts